{"id":823576,"date":"2026-11-04T05:54:24","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T05:54:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/823576\/"},"modified":"2026-11-04T05:54:24","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T05:54:24","slug":"im-paying-1000-a-year-for-a-garage-i-cant-use-because-someones-filled-it-with-rubbish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/823576\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I\u2019m paying \u00a31,000 a year for a garage I can\u2019t use because someone\u2019s filled it with rubbish’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Granddad Martyn de Young, aged 68, has said his rent has been increased despite being having been unable to access the nearly \u00a31,000-a-year garage in Larkfield, Kent, for more than one year<\/p>\n

11:10, 03 Nov 2026Updated 11:11, 03 Nov 2026<\/p>\n

\"Martyn<\/p>\n

Martyn de Young pays nearly \u00a31,000 a year for a garage he can’t use(Image: Cover Images)<\/p>\n

A granddad renting<\/a> garage space for nearly \u00a31,000 a year has complained he’s paying not to use it after finding it stuffed to the roof with fly-tipped rubbish.<\/p>\n

Martyn de Young, 68, forks out \u00a3960 a year for private use of the garage in Larkfield, Kent, in which he stored important belongings for three decades. He was forced to give it up, however, in August last year when he opened its door to discover it completely packed with someone else’s rubbish.<\/p>\n

The father of two has spent the last 14 months locked in a battle of wills with owners Clarion Housing <\/a>to get the mess cleared, describing the process as a “depressing tale of woe”.<\/p>\n

To see more of the stories you love from The Mirror and to find them easily in Google then make us your preferred source. Free and easy-to-do, just click on the link here<\/a> to find more from The Mirror at the top of your feed.<\/p>\n

\"Rubbish<\/p>\n

Three tonnes of rubbish were abandoned inside the garage(Image: Cover Images)<\/p>\n

Martyn’s life was turned upside-down when he arrived at the garage to find it crammed with a sofa, builder’s rubbish, laminate flooring and pairs of Wellington boots. The massive mess, weighing three tonnes in total. prevented him accessing the space, and he was unable reach his mobility scooter, which had been swallowed inside.<\/p>\n

Contractors were deployed to clear the fly-tipping soon after Martyn raised the issue, but they got the wrong garage, and were forced to put the refuse back where they found it.<\/p>\n

Clearance teams eventually removed one of the three tonnes from the right garage, and were due to come back to tackle the remaining two. But Martyn says this still hasn’t happened, with contractors unable to access the garage due to damage on the door and its lock.<\/p>\n

Martyn said he tried multiple times to contact the housing association for an update, and by March he tripped down to the garage to check if there had been any progress.<\/p>\n

But instead of discovering a newly cleaned out garage, he found it had been completely boarded up without notice – which Clarion later explained was an anti-fly-tipping measure. The granddad of five said CCTV was meant to be installed as an additional defence, but nothing ever came of it.<\/p>\n

He has now spent more than a year paying to rent the garage despite not being able to use it, which has cost him an estimated \u00a31,200.<\/p>\n

\"Rubbish<\/p>\n

Martyn’s mobility bike was stuck behind the garage mess(Image: Cover Images)<\/p>\n

He said he has been asked to pay more rent in the meantime, and was forced to borrow a new mobility scooter after his was lost in the mess. He said: “In the meantime they\u2019ve put my rent up. A year is a long time to wait. I don\u2019t need the mobility scooter anymore now, luckily. But I had to borrow one for a while, and it\u2019s been a bit of a nightmare really.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not doing my finances any good; I\u2019d still be paying the money out if I was using it, but it\u2019s a bit of a waste if I can\u2019t use it. It\u2019s a bit annoying as a pensioner I don\u2019t get that much to spare, so it will be nice to get that [money] back if I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

The retired IT consultant says when he finally got a call from someone at Clarion on October 27, there was no explanation as to why it had taken so long to get it fixed. He continued: \u201cWhen it got to a year, I thought now\u2019s the time to start doing something about it, and I wrote to them asking them to sort it out.”<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just been going on and on and on for 14 months. It has affected me; it\u2019s been annoying and I don\u2019t usually get annoyed. It\u2019s gutting and completely unnecessary, really. It could have been sorted out right at the beginning.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they expect me to pay rent, and the other people to pay rent, then they should be looking after the properties to some extent and keeping them secure. They had said about putting up CCTV, but they haven\u2019t done that. I\u2019m paying rent for it, so I should be able to use it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Martyn had suffered from arthritis<\/a> in his hip and had initially gone to the garage to recover his mobility scooter when he discovered it had been filled with rubbish.<\/p>\n

\"Martyn<\/p>\n

Clarion said the garage was shut off as an anti-flytipping measure(Image: Elli Hodgson\/Cover Images)<\/p>\n

However, the inability to retrieve it, meant he had to borrow an alternative scooter for several months, ahead of a total hip replacement.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cAs a pensioner, it is quite a hit on my finances for something I am getting no benefit from. Frankly, I am very disappointed at the lack of contact I have had from Clarion\u2026 it is over six months since I have heard anything, apart from a notice of rent increase.\u201d Martyn wants an early intervention to clear the garage and to recover his property, which includes his scooter, a scale model railway layout, family heirlooms and more.<\/p>\n

In addition, he wants the garage to be refurbished, with a replacement door and a new, secure lock. He thinks he should be refunded all rental payments he had made since the issue was reported, and a suspension of payments until the garage is in full use.<\/p>\n

No one was arrested or charged in connection with the fly-tipping, which Martyn believes was deposited between July 1 and August 25, 2025, as he had not been in the garage for around six to eight weeks. At the time, several of the other garages had also been fly-tipped.<\/p>\n

A Clarion Housing spokesperson said they were \u201csorry for the inconvenience\u201d experienced and are working with him to resolve the outstanding issues with his garage.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe will also reimburse the rent he has paid for the period the garage has been unusable. The other affected garages at Raven Close were cleared and secured to prevent further fly-tipping, and we are exploring additional security measures for the site, including a controlled-access barrier.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spokesperson added that staff had been in contact with Martyn to arrange clearance of the remaining waste with him present, so he can identify his belongings.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Granddad Martyn de Young, aged 68, has said his rent has been increased despite being having been unable…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":823577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,4658,5367,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-823576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-housing","tag-renting","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=823576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/823577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=823576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=823576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}